Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville filed a pleading Tuesday to dismiss the complaint against him in the case involving him and former business partner John David Stroud and Stroud’s business entities.

Tuberville seeks case dismissal

Texas Tech football coach Tommy Tuberville filed a pleading Tuesday to dismiss the complaint against him.

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Texas Tech football coach Tommy Tuberville filed a pleading Tuesday to dismiss the complaint against him.

The 29-page pleading was filed in the U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Ala., against Tuberville and former business partner John David Stroud and lists nine arguments for why the case should be dismissed.

The answer is the response to a complaint filed by seven people, including some former employees of TS Capital Partners LLC. It alleges Tuberville and Stroud failed to file tax returns and falsified fund performance reports and client statements.

The 16-count civil lawsuit also accuses the two of co-mingling investors’ funds with the plaintiffs’.

Most of the plaintiffs have asked for their money back, but it hasn’t been returned or accounted for, according to the complaint.

Tuberville denies any wrongdoing. He couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Vic Hayslip of Birmingham, Ala., Tuberville’s attorney, said he cannot estimate the chances of the complaint being dismissed immediately.

“I think it’s well founded, and it should be dismissed, but that’s certainly up to the judge, and the plaintiffs have an (opportunity) to respond,” he said.

He said the plaintiffs lump Stroud and Tuberville together and accuse them of certain actions, but do not identify specifically what they claim Tuberville did or said.

The request for dismissal states: “The plaintiffs’ complaint seeks to portray Coach Tuberville as a ‘con-man’ who, working arm-in-arm with Defendant Stroud, duped plaintiffs out of nearly $2,000,000. The truth is that Coach Tuberville lost more money through his own investments with defendant Stroud than all but one of the plaintiffs. He gave Stroud $450,000 to invest and lost it all.”

Among the nine arguments, the pleading states the plaintiffs’ allegations are devoid of any factual development. The plaintiffs do not identify any representations made by Tuberville to them or mention any facts that Tuberville omitted telling them in any conversations he had with them before they made their investment decisions, it states.

Three of the key plaintiffs — John Abrams, Baron Lowe and Glen Williams — submitted lengthy declarations to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has filed a complaint in the same court against Stroud, but not Tuberville, over Stroud’s alleged abuse and mishandling of plaintiffs’ investments.

Harris Kay of Chicago, who once represented Stroud, said he is not formally representing Stroud or any of his entities in connection with this case.

Matt Folmar, an Enterprise, Ala.-based attorney, said he is representing Stroud in the case against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but is not representing him in this case.

According to the pleading, the plaintiffs did not mention any assertion or facts that Tuberville’s statements or commissions induced their investments.

The response states the following was said in the plaintiffs’ sworn declarations:

■ Abrams and his wife began investing with Stroud in 2003. Abrams transferred their funds to TS Capital in mid-2010, months after Tuberville assumed his full-time head coach position at Tech. Abrams provided details about numerous meetings and conversations with Stroud, but never mentioned a conversation or meeting with Tuberville.

■ Lowe began investing money with Stroud in 2002-2003, and was offered a job at TS Capital in July 2010, after Tuberville was in Lubbock. Lowe was put in charge of operations by Stroud, and his only conversations with Tuberville were in late September 2011, when Lowe called Tuberville to inform him of issues at the firm he had uncovered and later when Tuberville told Lowe that Stroud intended to close the business and return investors’ money.

■ Williams began investing with Stroud in March 2000 and met Tuberville once in August 2010 when he stopped by Stroud’s office in Auburn. Williams began full-time work at TS Capital in January 2011 and had frequent conversations with Stroud, not Tuberville, about the day-to-day operations of the firm. His only conversations with Tuberville took place in late-September 2011, a year after Williams and his wife invested their retirement funds.

According to the pleading, none of three key plaintiffs provided any information in their declarations that any actions or statements of Tuberville had any influence on their decisions to continue investing money with Stroud.

Barbara Wells, an attorney for the plaintiffs, did not return a phone call Wednesday afternoon.

Hayslip said if the complaint is not immediately dismissed, their next actions will depend on what the court orders. The court could make the plaintiffs re-plead their complaint, and then the defendants would have the opportunity to respond to the new complaint.

“If that doesn’t suffice, we will move to have that dismissed,” he said.

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"The final argument states if the plaintiff’s claims are not dismissed, then Tuberville is at a minimum entitled to a more definite statement of the claims against him".

"Seven people, including some former employees of the firm, TS Capital Partners LLC, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in late February in Montgomery, Ala., alleging Tuberville and Stroud failed to file tax returns and falsified fund performance reports and client statements".